John Beckwith

Canadian composer, pianist, teacher, writer and administrator John Beckwith was born in Victoria, British Columbia on 9 March 1927. He studied piano with Alberto Guerrero at the Toronto Conservatory of Music and then learned with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. From 1952 until he retired in 1990, he taught at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Music, was faculty dean (1970-77) and founded and directed the university's Institute for Canadian Music.

His more than 160 compositions include chamber, choral, concert band, orchestral, solo and stage works. He also arranged many Canadian folk songs.  The last of his seventeen books was published three months before he died from pneumonia at Toronto Western Hospital on 5 December 2022, aged ninety-five.

 

A selection of articles about John Beckwith

Echoes of Oblivion by Robert McCarney - The Departed

CD Spotlight. Refreshingly Innovative - Music by John Beckwith, reviewed by Natalie Artemas-Polak. '... an important voice in Canadian music ...'